Whilst environmental issues have steadily risen on citizens’ lists of most critical concerns facing society, have public authorities done enough to address these concerns? An EU-supported project recently got underway to look at ways in which the integration of environmental concerns into sectoral policies, such as transport, can contribute to addressing persistent environmental problems. The project funded under FP6 and coordinated by Ecologic, Environmental Policy Integration and multi-level Governance, or EPIGOV, recently held its first conference in Brussels to debate environmental policy integration.

EPIGOV is based on two sets of principal research questions. Firstly, which modes of governance are used to improve environmental policy integration (EPI) at different levels of governance? Is it possible to identify dominant modes at particular levels and which are particularly effective or promising? Secondly, what effect does the presence/interaction of the same/different modes of governance at different levels of governance have on EPI?

These issues are being addressed through individually themed conferences. The first was held at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and was concerned with the EPI at EU level. Dr Ingmar von Homeyer, the project coordinator, noted that it was important for the consortium to include the public right from the start of the process, rather than merely opening up the final conference to them.

Read the full article published on 9 March 2007 at the website of the European Commission – DG Research

Further information on the project is provided on the EPIGOV-Website.